Among other cats I have a male cat with a severe problem and I could use some advice. So here is his story:

On February 2014 I managed to catch a stray male cat from the streets in order to take him for neutering. He was not friendly at all but before taking him to the vet I was able to see that his tail looked like paralyzed. Anyway, I took him to the vet for neutering and I mentioned her that he might have a problem in his tail - so she will take after.

The other morning I went and pick this male cat from the vet - with no extra advice or anything. Soon, after I brought him home and open the carrier box I realized that his tail was amputated by the vet and that the cat is suffering from diarrhea and that a part of his bowel was outside his anus. I immediately called the vet and asked her about that. She replied to me that this was due to spinal cord trauma, perhaps from a car accident. She told me to give him 1/4 "Prezolon 5mg" (Prednisolone) and to feed him with Hills I/D. - and maybe after 2 months he would recover.

It was obvious that I wouldn't be able to let him back on the streets in 7 days, as I do with all the strays I take for neutering - but that was ok with me and that the vet was extremely awful - since she didn't pay attention to the bowel of the cat- so I started searching for a new vet.

On March 2014 (1 month later) I took him to another vet. He performed many exams to the cat and found out that his general health was pretty good, but he had suffered perhaps a car accident that left him with the fecal incontinence and diarrhea that would be forever, as well and the urine incontinence. He told me that there were not a lot we can do, not even a surgery would have good results (and that this could cause him suffering) and so he proposed to put him to sleep.

I gave it a good thought and I decided that especially if this cat survived a car accident that damaged his body, he must suffer great pain, all alone in the streets, before I found him and that he deserves to live a nice life. I asked the vet if he is in pain and he said no, apart from his anus and that I should keep him extra clean in order for the area there to recover. That was ok with me, so the vet advised me to continue with the Prednisolone as well as the Hills I/D and also to start giving him 1/10 of "Salofalk 250mg" (Mesalazine). He put his bowel back inside and told me to keep him clean.

And so the first year was quite ok for this cat. His anus recovered and wad not inflamed. He had some bad days every month, that he would refuse to eat and play and these days his diarrhea would be enormous, but most of the days he was happy staying with us and playing with the other cats.

About 1 year ago (on October 2015) I noticed that he wasn't able to pee at all. So I took him to another vet, that I was told was an expert in that kind of problems. He managed to empty his bladder and he taught me how to do it at home if needed again (even though he never had a crisis like that again). He agreed with the other vet, that no surgery will help him. He advised me to put him to sleep since he will never recover and he is making the house a mess. I refused and so he told me to stop the drugs (both Prednisolone + Mesalazine, since they would damage his kidneys) and to change his diet to Hills W/D.

I did so. And this last year, even though he is not taking any drugs I didn't notice any change. He had his usual fecal incontinence and diarrhea and the urine incontinence. He had his bad days every month but most of the time he was ok.

(Even though his anus is leaking all the time, I keep him clean (and the house) because I am at home all the time since I am without a job the last year)

Now the problem: the last 7-10 days he is continuously in his "bad days". He is not eating a lot, he rarely plays - but he still loves it when I caress him. His bladder is not full (he mostly pee when I wash him) but he has great diarrhea.

I cannot afford to take him to another vet, due to lack of money, just to listen again that there is nothing we can do. I am ok with the idea to put him down if his life is not gonna be good from now on - but I would like to know if anybody in this forum had a similar problem and how did you take care of it.

I have tried diapers once when I first decided to keep him, but he didn't like wearing it and since I didn't wanna cause him more problems I quite from the idea. I have no problem with cleaning all the dirt all day - that is the last thing that bothers me really. I'm mostly concerned for his well-being.

Both 3 vets we visited told us that his diarrhea is part of the spinal cord problem and that his bowels are not working correctly to digest the food and that this is the way he is gonna be- forever.
Actually, you can see him visiting the litter box very very often (unusual often) but he is not able to do anything. I understand that he gets the feeling of wanting to make poops but he can't - on the other hand, his anus is leaking all the time.

I doubt it can be parasites since I have a lot of cats, so I do give them anti-parasite pills and stuff like that.
But I can't speak for the possibility of an infection... on the other hand, I have him 2.5 years... I don't know if it is possible to have an infection for that long without getting worse. You can say that his condition is always stable: some days he is in a good mood, some days in bad, depending on the amount of diarrhea. I am sure that what he eats affects his diarrhea. If he eats only the W/D (hills) he is much better - but he always eats from the regular cat food that is around the house.

Anyway, if it happens you have any idea of what kind of exams he must get, it would very helpful - that way I can tell the vet to perform them - the vets we visited so far had only one solution for him - euthanasia.

Hmm. I have/ had 4 spinal cord injured boys, from mild to severe, and none of them have/had such an extreme diarrhea problem so much of the time. I'm mystified!! I still wonder about the nasty infections/parasites like coccidia, giardia, etc. They're hard to diagnose and can be hard to treat.

Both 3 vets we visited told us that his diarrhea is part of the spinal cord problem and that his bowels are not working correctly to digest the food

I have never heard a vet say that before.

I have hesitated to say anything because critters and BendyMom have tons more experience with this. I agree that chronic diarrhea is not normally part of paralysis. But paralyzed pets can get it like other pets, of course. With any paralyzed pet, it can be hard to differentiate between what is related to the paralysis and what is just an ordinary health problem, especially when you did not know the cat before he was paralyzed so you did not know his previous health history. The diarrhea does sound like it is unrelated to the injury. I know the vet said the prolapsed rectum was related to his accident. Maybe that is true. However, chronic diarrhea is another thing that can cause the rectum to prolapse because of too many trips to the litter box.

In addition to infections like giardia, I wonder if a possibility is inflammatory bowel disease. I am no expert on it but in this article they are saying that IBD usually presents with diarrhea and vomiting, but if the inflammatory cells are in the lower GI tract is it more often diarrhea, and if they are in the upper GI tract you see vomiting.

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/Health_Information/brochure_ibd.cfm wrote:
For example, if the inflammatory cells are affecting the stomach or higher areas of the small intestine, then the cat may exhibit symptoms of chronic vomiting. If the inflammatory cells are in the colon, then the cat may have diarrhea or blood in the stool. The symptoms may not always correspond to the area affected, especially if the entire digestive tract is involved

I do not know how hard it would be in your multi-cat household, but it might be an idea to change the feeding routine? I'm sure you've probably thought of that already but hesitate. It sounds like you are "free feeding" where food sits out all day, as many people do. Sometimes with special needs cats you are forced to end up "meal feeding" if you have a bunch of cats on special diets and you don't want the different cats eating the food that is not for them. There are ways to do it like having a separate crate for each cat (that's what I do) or feeding each cat in a different room with the door shut. If you have 2 that are eating the same thing and they are friends, you could close them both in the same room together. Some people feed once a day, I feed twice a day, morning and night.

If this is too complicated, then perhaps you could compromise where you have the food sitting out exactly like you do now, but just do it for one hour or two hours at a time, and during this time keep this cat in the bathroom with his Hill's w/d. After an hour or two hours, take up the bowls and put them away and let him out of the bathroom, then put them out again in the evening for another hour with him in the bathroom again. That way they can still kind of eat at their leisure and it is not too big of a change for them. If you decide to feed in different rooms, it is amazing how well they will learn the routine, like if you feed Snowy in the bathroom and Tiger in the laundry room and Missy in the pantry, etc. Each cat will follow you to his room and go to his bowl and you can shut the door, it is not chaos, it is very organized and very quick, and it does not take them long to figure out who goes where. It is not frustrating because they learn the system and cooperate. The same is true of feeding crates. If each cat has his own feeding crate, he will go there when you put the food in, he will not try to go to another cat's crate, they are extremely intelligent and it is efficient. I'm only suggesting that because you say he does OK when he stays on the Hill's w/d. If you can just keep him out of the other food, maybe the situation would improve?

Hello, and thank you both for your answers.
They are very valuable to me.
We are having an appointment tomorrow evening with a new vet.
I will ask him to check the cat for the possibility of infections or infl. bowel disease.

Yes you are right I am free feeding and I only keep him (Pepilinos) in a separate room when I give him his food - but of course he is eating from others cat food too. Perhaps I must stop this and start feeding at particular hours and keep him separated at those times. I will try it from now to see if this helps him.

Thank you very much once again and I will be back after the appointment.

Good point, Carol! Maybe keeping him in his own bowl for a while might help. I have 2 who can't get any special food, etc. because they react with explosive diarrhea, and they can't ever switch food, either.